Great Build Up
While I'm always praising Ed Brubaker's writing skills in the crime noir genre, he is hardly a one trick pony. Captain America has turned into one of the best espionage stories I've ever read. Each issue feels like the world these characters inhabit is on the verge of total chaos and they're desperately trying to find answers before it happens. While the purists wanted to hang Brubaker for bringing back Bucky, the Winter Soldier has easily turned out to be one of Marvel's best new characters (if he can be considered new). It can be easy to see this title continuing with Winter Soldier as the main character for years to come.
Reading a book that has too many characters in it can be annoying, but only if the writer isn't Ed Brubaker. This story manages to juggle multiple plot threads involving everyone from Tony Stark to the Red Skull while keeping the pace of the story to near perfection. One of the key things that is done in this title, is that every character that is used for the story makes sense. They have a purpose to the plot and aren't just used to sell issues. Obviously no one would plaster the Falcon on a comic book cover expecting sales to go up, so that might be proof enough right there.
Almost every plot thread is brought together in this issue, and creates the perfect build up for the conclusion of this arc. I don't remember the last time I was looking forward to the next issue of a series like this. Even if you predict how this issue ends, you'll still be wondering how all this could possibly end.